Creative Light - Issue 43 by Guild of Photographers

GURUSHOTS - COLORFUL FLOWERS SPOTLIGHT ON - SHARON BOLT SPOTLIGHT ON - NEIL BREMNER PROBLEM SOLVING WITH GARY HILL WEDDINGS - LEE HATHERALL FOR THE LOVE OF DOGS - JASON ALLISON DPI V PPI DEBATE - PHILIP YALE Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

Whitney Scott Photography

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: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

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Contents 10

Guild Spotlight Sharon Bolt

Wedding Photography Lee Hatherall

Colorful Flowers Challenge GuruShots

For the Love of Dogs Jason Allison

Guild Spotlight Neil Bremner

54 60

Gold Awards April | May 2021

Are you Insane? Rob Hill

64 68 72

Ronan Ryle Four Figure Portrait Sales

Problem Solving Gary Hill

Non-Destructive Dodging & Burning Glyn Dewis - Photoshop

Qualified Submissions April 2021

PPI v DPI Debate Philip Yale

CREATING YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY PACKAGE A signature photography package makes it easier for your clients to understand what you can offer for them and it helps you build a standard for upselling and add-ons. Here’s some tips on building your photography package.

1. WHO ARE YOUR CLIENTS? Figure out which clients you want to attract with your signature package. This will make it easier for you to decide which products should be in it. Each of your target markets will want different products in their packages, so it’s important to decide who your key target clients are.

3. CHOOSE A SPOTLIGHT PRODUCT This is the star of your photography package! A beautiful album or grand wall display is perfect for the package’s focus and can be the key in securing sales. Our sample packs serve as a good guide for what clients are looking for for each photography style including the Alumini, Bellissimo Perfetto, Edge Print and Esprit Book.

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2. OPTIONS FOR EVERY BUDGET Have a standard package to offer everyone, but have options to swap out products for smaller budgets or for high-end clients so everyone’s happy. Starting with a standard photography package and then downgrading or upgrading to suit every client’s needs means you’re always prepared and clients will know you’re creating a package unique to their tastes and budget.

4. UPGRADES AND ADD-ONS Always be flexible with packages to suit every client’s needs. Offering product upgrades or addons to packages can boost sales. Album duplicates and downscales are great for clients with larger families and wedding parties and provide a range of products from exact duplicates of your albums to a pack of 5 Mini Books. Smaller add-ons like USB sticks are also popular and can increase your sales.

4. GO MULTIPLATFORM Offer digital features and USB combination products in print photography packages to give clients a handy digital solution and the best of both worlds. Products such as the Book & USB Box are great for adding into packages; it means clients can enjoy a quality keepsake but still easily share all their favourite memories digitally.

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D I S C O V E R M O R E , V I S I T L O X L E Y C O L O U R . C O M O R CIssue A L43 L -0 1Creative 2 3 6 Light 8 6 Magazine 2720.

Editor Julie Oswin June and the Summer Solstice is upon us, and we are already halfway through the year and the next six months should see life slowly returning to us after such a tough time during the pandemic. With weddings starting to get going again we have a fab interview with Lee Hatherall talking with Creative Light about his photography journey and photographing purely weddings for the last 15 years. Jason Allison is back with part three of his articles on ‘For the Love of Dogs’ and Gary Hill’s problemsolving page answering two questions, the first on posing hands and the second one dealing with colour tones/casts in Photoshop. Philip Yale discusses the ongoing debate ‘dpi versus ppi’. All interesting stuff! Enjoy. If you have a question for Gary to solve for future editions, send your question to Julie Oswin - email: julie@photoguild.co.uk.

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Editors Choice Emma Finch Awarded Silver - April 2021

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Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

Spotlight On Sharon Bolt

“ My photographic journey began in the Summer of 2017. I had decided to join a photography workshop in Santorini, and I bought a Sony A7iii in preparation. I’d owned a little Panasonic bridge camera for years, but it had never been off auto or jpeg. Upon arrival, everyone else on the workshop seemed to have a wealth of knowledge, and I just wanted to run for the volcano. Little did I know how that holiday would, literally, change my life! The two tour leaders were kind, patient, and never hesitated to explain everything I needed to know. On the workshop were Helen Trust, Steve Oldfield, and Catherine Chapman, who encouraged, supported, and shared their knowledge freely. I arrived home with a certain knowledge that I had a passion for photography and photographing dogs. I downloaded Adobe CC and began my journey in post-processing. Every day and into the night I sat and worked at my computer, slowly teaching myself Photoshop. There were many moments when banging my head against a wall seemed likely, but equally many joyous light bulb moments. Cleo Bolt Photography was born in early 2018. It’s so-called because “Cleo” was my first dog as an adult. I loved my little Cairn terrier so much; her name was an obvious choice for me. I became a member of the Guild of Photographers that year, which was undoubtedly one of the best decisions I’ve made. I joined a fabulous Buddy Group in 2020. The insight and expertise of my ‘buddies’, so freely shared, has been a massive inspiration to me. Huge thanks to them. My next project is to learn about Equine Photography. ” https://cleoboltphotography.co.uk 10

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Q: How did you first get interested in photography? It was an internet search that literally changed my life. I was looking for ideas for my first solo holiday, thinking of a walking trip. I typed “best solo holidays” in the search engine, and the internet suggested a photography holiday to Santorini. It caught my imagination, and I’d booked within the hour. That decision changed the course of my life!

Q: What do you specifically look for first when creating your images? I’d say that I am a reactive photographer, and by that, I mean that I am better at responding to moving situations, and as such, it can be the most fleeting move or the shadow cast that catches my eye. The photographs I’ve enjoyed the most are those because, at that moment, the animal or bird is genuinely itself, the emotion on an animal’s face never lies, and the camera is a magnifying glass for that.

Q: What is the most challenging area of your photography? Your questions are so thought-provoking, Julie. I am the least technically able person you will ever meet. And so it is the technology that fills me with dread, and because of that, I have surrounded myself with people I can count on to help when things inevitably go wrong.

Q: How has your style of photography developed or grown since you first started? Three years ago, my preoccupation was with the mechanics of the image and delivering good quality work for my clients. I do remember that every photo shoot was accompanied by fear and anxiety. While the pressure is still there, I have gained the confidence to deal with the situations if they arise. In terms of my work, the mechanics no longer preoccupy me.

Q: One piece of equipment that you cannot do without? All of my equipment is precious to me. But if I have to choose, then I think, of the equipment I have now, it would have to be my Sony a7riii body. It’s the camera I reach for in most situations.

Q: Best buy for under £50? My basket of squeaky toys. They never fail to create wonderful expressions and laughter.

Q: Favourite lens in your camera bag? Sony FE 200-600. Add it to either my a7riii or my a9 bodies; It’s everything I need for wildlife photography.

Q: Apart from your camera, what is a piece of equipment that you cannot do without and why? I think it’s undoubtedly my computer downloaded with my editing suite. Because of that, the only creative limit is my imagination.

Q: How do you proof your work? It’s changed during the last year. I used to give my clients access to an online album. Having discovered the wonders of Zoom, I’ll be doing online viewing with my clients from now on.

Q: What is your turnaround from your photo shoot to supplying your images to your client for proofing? I suggest a month to my clients, but I aim to deliver earlier than that, and I will always do my very best to deliver, especially if they have tight deadlines.

Q: Do you use a tripod? If so, how important is it for your photography? I have a tripod, and I’ve used it twice. Does anyone want to buy a tripod?

Q: What advice can you share for people interested in taking up photography? I can only tell you how it has changed me. The camera, so small, held in hand, placed to the face, has taught me to see the world differently. I see beauty in shapes, shadows, light, and tone that I would have passed by without a thought. Photography has literally changed my life, the way I think, how I feel, the way I interact with nature. I’d say, do it; you’ll know quickly whether it’s for you, and if it is for you, then you will enter a world of creativity from which there is no turning back.

Q: How important is Photoshop|Lightroom |Post-Production to your photography? It’s essential for me. I always say, “if you can imagine it, then Photoshop allows you to do it.”

Q: What is your favourite place or subject that you have photographed and why? Sat in a Jeep, with the African sun setting behind the mountains, reflecting blood red he onto the river as it curved through the valley. The air thick with the scent of wild basil and the sound of cicadas thrumming their night song. Amidst this, I sat, and to my left and in front were six lions: two adult males, three females, and a juvenile. For well over an hour, the lions allowed us the privilege of sitting in such close proximity, and we witnessed these beautiful beings at rest. Eventually, they rose and stretched, and each, one by one, crossed the river to search for food. No matter where I go and what I do in life. That image, those scents, and sounds will always be seared into my brain. Africa is the place I will return to again and again and again; its’ animals, particularly its’ lions, feel to me like coming home.

Q: Developing your marketplace, how important was it to create your brand in the area you are based? My business was really only just finding its’ feet at the beginning of 2020, and then the Covid pandemic changed everything. Honestly, I’m not a natural businesswoman, and I’d say that I’ve made more mistakes than I’ve had victories. It

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was my intention at the beginning of my journey to grow my business through referral, and I’ve built myself a good reputation locally. But I realize that I need to do more, and all I can say is that I’m a work in progress!

Q: Who inspires you? There’s inspiration everywhere I look in nature. My family and friends are inspirational, each in their own right. Public figures? Many but Jane Goodall, Sir David Attenborough, Lawrence Anthony, and Coco Chanel immediately come to mind. The poem “Wilderness” by Ian McCallum makes me cry and inspires me to try to do better. I’m inspired by indomitable, dogged determination when those character traits are wrapped up in a kind nature. Kindness inspires me more than anything else.

Q: If you were to be on a desert island and only take one item, what would it be? Obviously, my dogs and cats would be with me. So with that as a given, I guess (and I hope he won’t mind my calling him an “item”), but my vet would have to be my item!

Q: How do you relax? I walk.

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Q: Three individual words that describe you? I’m going to phone a friend... My friend said, bonkers (think I’ll get another friend!), kind, loyal (maybe I’ll keep her!)

Q: Favourite place in the world and why? Africa because there’s no way to put into words how it made me feel. Loving the animals was a given, but I hadn’t anticipated the impact the lands would have upon me. When people told me that “Africa changes you forever, “I thought they were overly dramatic. But Africa does change you forever. It finds its way into your DNA and makes you see the world differently.

Q: Favourite food? I’m a pescetarian, so other than meat; any food is my favourite food! I mainly really do love anything good for me and potatoes. Potatoes are the food of the gods. Mashed, mashed with olives, if you’ve never had them, you cannot have known true pleasure, roast, chipped, boiled. Potatoes are king!

Q: Favourite suppliers? I’m going to steer away from my favourite photography suppliers because there are far more than three. So my favourite three suppliers for anything are Honey’s, they make the best dog food and are always at the end of the phone if I need them. Holly and Lil, my dogs’ collar makers. John Lewis Partnership, because they supply everything I need and want and far too many things I don’t know that I need and like!

Q: Your favourite drink/cocktail? That’s the first easy question you’ve asked me!. I’m not a cocktail person, but I would travel miles for a good Margarita.

Q: Where next? Scotland. I love that country. I’m heading up with my camera this summer; meet up with one of my buddy group, and we’re going to photograph as much of the wildlife that the time will allow. I really can’t wait. Photographically - I’ve decided to study equine photography to compliment my dog photography. The journey continues... ... “through my camera, I see a world of wonder that I would never, otherwise see.”

- Thank you Sharon for sharing an insight into your journey with photography with the readers of Creative Light Magazine. - Julie Oswin, Editor

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+44 (0) 1707 27 37 47 Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

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Spotlight On Lee Hatherall Wedding Photographer | Somerset

“

I’m mainly weddings, but I also shoot on-location family portraits. I studied A-level photography in the sixth form, having work experience with a local paper and a photographer that worked from home. Starting at the bottom to gain his trust like cleaning his kitchen and hoovering his house (child labour), but I was prepared to do this to move on, which led to paid small jobs with him working at a racecourse photographing the horses jumping over the last jump in freezing weather, but I loved it. Been a pro photographer since I was 18. I started as a studio portrait photographer, ran off to Greece to work in a bar and to get drunk for nine months, come back and worked for London camera exchange for one month then I worked as a studio photographer/ supervisor at Butlins, then seven years on cruise ships as a ships photographer travelling from Europe, America, Canada, Caribbean, Hawaii, Alaska. Central and South America seeing and doing things that people would only dream of while spending as much time in Florida that I could. I returned to the UK when 911 hit, worked at Jessops as Lab manager while setting up a portrait business on the side, and that’s when I fell into weddings. It went from 2 to 12 then 12 to 30 and I’ve never looked back. I’m now in my 15th year of pure weddings. Weddings control my life; there’s nothing else that I would like to shoot. Luckily I have an understanding family. I’m one year away from 30 years as a pro. I’ve travelled abroad and all over the UK for weddings, not forgetting the multiple awards that I have won over the years that I’ve worked hard for. Proud I’m still shooting weddings after all these years. “ - Lee Hatherall Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

Q: How did you first get interested in photography? When I was a young lad, we were on holiday, and I took a photo of a helicopter in the sky with my dad’s Kodak 110 camera with 24 shots. My dad telling me, well, that was a waste, and my reply no! it will be good. When dad printed the photos, he was right. Since then, I was interested.

Q: What do you specifically look for first when creating your images? Light and location it’s all about the light.

Q: What is the most challenging area of your photography? Editing, that’s the bit I like least; I prefer to shoot

Q: What motivates you to get up in the morning? At the moment, nothing! Covid! My duvet is nice n warm! Honestly, I’m motivated not to fall behind with my bookings, messages, and emails from brides. They have gone through a crappy time; I’m here seven days a week for them if they need me.

Q: How has your style of photography developed or grown since you first started? Images are more styled; you look more for shapes and angles, keeping images modern but sometimes with a twist. You never stop looking for the next twist.

Q: One piece of equipment that you cannot do without? My eyes! My camera and one lens.

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Q: Best buy for under £50? Memory card, I would be stuck without one.

Q: Favourite lens in your camera bag? I’ve been Nikon for many, many years, I switched last year to fuji, and all the lenses are great. I do love the 90mm and the 50-140mm at the moment. But each wedding is different, so I could use the 23mm and be in love.

Q: Apart from your camera, what is a piece of equipment that you cannot do without and why? Eyes and light. I don’t use flash, I might use it for the first dance, but I’d be stuck without light.

Q: How do you proof your work? I am using Lightroom to cull and basic edit.

Q: What is your turnaround from your photo shoot to supplying your images to your client for proofing? Maximum of two weeks.

Q: Do you use a tripod? If so, how important is it for your photography? What’s a tripod... ?

Q: What advice can you share for people interested in taking up photography? If they are interested in photography, just get out there and shoot anything and play with it. If you want to get into weddings, just don’t rush, don’t practice on a wedding couple, love what you do 1st if you don’t live it, then move on. Learning about photographing weddings is a marathon, not a short sprint.

Q: How important is Photoshop|Lightroom and PostProcessing to your photography? Very much so. I tend to shoot 99% in the camera; that’s old habits from shooting film, so my editing is easy. Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

Q: What is your favourite place or subject that you have photographed and why? I loved going off in Alaska, bear watching, and following the humpbacks. The Panama canal was out of this world; only photographers can get off the ship onto the pilot’s boat as it enters the canal. We followed the ship all day while driving through the jungle and stopping at locations planned to shoot the ship coming through. I’ve stood on the enormous Gatun lock gates while the ship slowly came towards us. Not many people can say that! Then weddings abroad are fabulous, and the wedding I shot at St Georges Chapel at Windsor; not many photographers have shot a wedding there then driven through Windsor castle and the grounds. I ended up on the grounds next to Frogmore Cottage.

Q: Developing your marketplace, how important was it to create your brand in the area you are based? I like to be a little different, and I like to be minimal. I think it stands out, but I’ve built my name up for so many years it’s more of my name than a logo.

Q: Who inspires you? My mortgage and bills. I have three children and two dogs to pay for! I don’t follow one photographer, but back in the day, when I was a student, Patrick Lichfield inspired me.

Q: If you were to be on a desert island and only take one item, what would it be? A knife

Q: How do you relax? Call of Duty on the Xbox; it’s my time with no kids screaming and fighting.

Q: Three individual words that describe you? It’s different from what a certain ginger friend would say but hard-working, determined, reliable.

Q: Favourite place in the world and why? Ooh, I can’t choose just one! Alaska because it’s just perfect in every way. South Florida because it’s a home from home; I have many special friends that live there, like my second family.

Q: Favourite suppliers? Suppliers as in equipment? Apple, Fuji, and Mercedes

Q: Favourite food? Ha! Chicken Wings

Q: Where next? Fight this Covid pandemic, get back to everyday life, shoot many more weddings, and to buy a camper to take my boys on some little trips. Thank you Lee for sharing an insight into your wedding photography business. - Julie Oswin, Editor

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Peter Li is an award-winning photographer based in London. His architectural artwork received 1st place in the Architecture Category at the Epson International Pano Awards 2018 and was Commended at the Sony World Photography Awards 2018. His work has been featured in The Times, Time Out London and in various photography and art publications.

How did you get your start in photography? I started shooting with a DSLR camera back in 2013 when my first child was born. Like many dads out there, I wanted to document my growing family. Having a wife who studied art, she has a very artistic eye and I am very lucky to have someone who would give me an honest critique. In the early days, I was independently studying/self-teaching photography every day and practising on a daily basis.

What type of photography are you shooting and what motivated you to focus on that genre? In 2015, I met two aspiring photographers who shared their passion for architecture photography with me. Through their inspiration, I have learnt to be attentive in achieving symmetry and am mindful in my composition and line work. Living in London, we have all sorts of architecture; we often find a classic gem nestled amongst modern skyscrapers. I owe London for fuelling my passion for this genre.

What has been your biggest achievement or obstacle along the way? One of the biggest challenges is to photograph a space completely empty, and often it’s the hardest thing to do, so to prep for the best conditions I try to plan my visits on the days that are least busy, and getting up early to be the first person there. In London, interiors can be tricky because often they would not allow the use of tripods. But on the positive side, photographing around London I had trained myself to have a steady hand for a slow shutter exposure. 28

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‘Megamind’ Royal Albert Hall, London. The auditorium of London’s Royal Albert Hall during lighting preparation for an upcoming show. It is fascinating to see the hall from floor to ceiling in such flying colours. The stage spotlight cast such dramatic shadows across the seating area and transforms the space into something quite otherworldly. It is a difficult scene to photograph, but challenging conditions often make great photos.

Who and/or what inspires you most? I often look for inspiration from paintings, movies and games. I started gaming from a very young age, and I think it has impacted my photography more so than any other art form.

What is your approach? Is there anything in particular you try to achieve during a shoot (for example triggering certain feelings, etc.) or are there any specific techniques you use? My work sits between realism and fantasy. Historical buildings such as Cathedrals or music theatres are often reminiscent of our history - they are intrinsically timeless and, in many ways, otherworldly.

‘Chessboard’ St Paul’s Cathedral, London. St Paul’s Cathedral is one of London’s finest Classic architecture gem, a masterpiece from Christopher Wren’s creations. My St Paul’s series has 3 parts, each section of the Cathedral has its very own style but marries seamlessly together. The chandeliers brighten the space evenly across the Nave, while the lack of deep shadows creates a minimalistic elegant scene.

With vertical panoramic photography (Vertorama), we are able to observe a three-dimensional space in its entirety, giving us a view/perspective beyond what the eye can see. It breaks us from reality, plays with our perception of shape and form and creates a sense of another world. Through my photography, I hope to impart fragments of fantasy to the viewer and encourage them to take a momentary step out of their reality

Why is accurate color important within your workflow? I print my work regularly, colour accuracy is very important, having a screen that could accurately render the colours will make the process much easier to manage. The subtle tonal difference of an image can convey a very different mood and message. https://amzn.to/2wDin8e Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine : 29

Colorful Flowers Challenge

Joel F ~ United

Wilson Valverde ~ United States ~

I am Panda ~ India ~

Ragilages ~ Indonesia ~

TOP PHOTOGRAPHER WINNER | TOP PHOTO WINNER | TOP GURU’S PICK WINNER

Arizon ~ United

Xavier @xavie ~ Fra

Gabriella L Balint ~ United Kingdom ~

Péter Lehóczky ~ Hungary ~

Fabiano Santos ~ United States ~

Bajkó Tamás ~ Hungary ~

Nikolay Tatarchuk ~ Israel ~

FMT | Cdt.Feu ~ France ~

Tony ~ United

Ignacio Tejeda ~ Chile ~

Rebecka Nilsson ~ Sweden ~

Gigi Cioffi Spanola ~ United States ~

Ameri ~ United

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Franck d States ~

Ilan Horn ~ Israel ~

Maria Fremming ~ Denmark ~

Shouvik Mukherjee ~ India ~

nan Yeti d States ~

Maria.Punnonen ~ Finland ~

Siddhartha Biswas ~ Kenya ~

Honza Urbánek ~ Czech Republix ~

erjouve | TeamX ance ~

Alain Rochecouste ~ Ireland ~

Detlev.b. photo ~ Austria ~

Rob Williamson ~ United States ~

Webb d States ~

Ela Opatowiecka ~ Canada ~

Dana Chmilevschi ~ United Kingdom ~

Kari Bence (Outsiders) ~ Norway ~

ican Pie d States ~

Gillian Laverty ~ United Kingdom ~

jbnaturephotography ~ United States ~

Dave Birdsall ~ United Kingdom ~ Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

Karl Presser ~ Australia ~

Pavlína Rolincová ~ Czechia ~

Suzi Magner ~ Australia ~

Pat K ~ United

Eleanor Brown ~ United Kingdom ~

Dragana Simić ~ Serbia ~

Ruxandra Galeriu ~ Romania ~

Fred K ~ United

Huub Reijnders ~ Netherlands ~

Sherry Ott ~ United States ~

Linda ANZAC ~ New Zealand ~

Kathy ~ Can

thekellyd ~ Mexico ~

Ann Cason ~ United States ~

Steve Hayzlett ~ United States ~

Luana F ~ Germ

Lizanne Mooten ~ Netherlands ~

Carla Odiaga ~ United States ~

ivossmann ~ Estonia ~

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Giedre Že ~ Republic o

Kaye States ~

J K Asher ~ United States ~

F. Russ Trated ~ United States ~

Eva Bíró ~ Hungary ~

Kowalo d States ~

Zsolt Minczer ~ Hungary ~

Panagiotis Lagouvardos ~ Greece ~

Rodolphe Perreau ~ United Kingdom ~

Green nada ~

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Bruce Howe ~ United States ~

Vi Ray ~ United States ~

emaitienė of Lithuania ~

leannascales ~ United States ~

Nidhi Rathi Saraogi ~ India~

Dragan Cerovic ~ Serbia ~ Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

Viktoria Bilan ~ Ukraine ~

Asbjørn Kristiansen ~ Norway ~

sstruth ~ United States ~

jennam ~ United

Lydia Huibregtse ~ United States ~

Sonia Maldonado ~ United States ~

Manfred Matzinger ~ Austria ~

Thomas ~ Aus

Denise Weßel-Therhorn ~ Germany ~

Karina Andersen ~ Denmark ~

Mihacsi Janos ~ Austria ~

Jennifer Henn ~ United States ~

Ryan Riley ~ United States ~ 34

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Bryony Herrod-Taylor ~ United Kingdom ~

Betsy Bee ~ United States ~

Susann ~ Germ

Francisco Gonzalez ~ Spain ~

Riki A ~ United

Kai T Stoeyva ~ Norway ~

Denisa ~ United

marines d States ~

Montana Reflections ~ United States ~

Serena Vachon ~ United States ~

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s Gutschi stria ~

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FMT| Frederic Gombert ~ France ~

Kerenkei ~ United States ~

Raymond Chung ~ Hong Kong ~

a Rama d States ~

Roc Shots ~ United States ~

Find out more about GuruShots by visiting their website. Join the daily photo challenges, improve your photography and get rewarded. www.gurushots.com Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

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Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

For the Love of Dogs Jason Allison The Dog Photographer

Jason is a lifetime

photographer, dog lover, and now a pet photographer. He’s a Guild of Photographers Craftsman and achieved many an award since joining the guild in 2016, including Pet Photographer of the year 2019, Image of the year 2019, and ‘Classic Portraiture’ Image of the year 2019.

“ I’m a dog photographer; I’m not a dog behaviourist, I’m not a crazy dog m love it when I get it right! I also love dogs, not

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COMPETITION & DEVELOPMENT

Jason’s first ever Silver awarded in the Guild’s IOM Pet Category

man, nor am I a strobe lighting wizard, but I do love dog photography, and I t madly, you understand, but I do love them. “

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From 2017 until 2020, I was hard at it, entering The Guilds’ ‘IOM’ (Image of the month) competition. Just about every month of the year, I entered the ‘IOM’ and I believe this developed my portrait-making skills and bagged a few high scoring images and awards in the process. I’m not going into detail about the ‘IOM.’ You get yourself acquainted with the competition and process from the Guild of Photographers website - www.photoguild.co.uk

SO WHAT CAN THE GUILD’S ‘IOM’ DO FOR YOU? I can thank the ‘IOM’ and its process for the success and development of my pet portraiture, but what exactly helped me the most?

It was a combination of my competitiveness to do well in the competition and… Regular and consistent entry (more photography, more images, more editing, and more practice). Feedback from the Judges and my mentor (after each monthly result was released). Help from Facebook Buddy Groups and, of course, Guild friends! The competition part is simple, we all want to do well. We want to better ourselves and previous efforts and, in turn, improve our images. The ‘IOM’ is the perfect vehicle for this, in my opinion, but be prepared for hard work, heartache, and harsh realities. You will hear seasoned IOM’ers talk about the roller-coaster ride that is the ‘IOM’ and they and I are not wrong. Stick with it, follow the process, and you WILL improve your photography. Those who were in my buddy group at the time will know how much change the image below of Charlie went through in 2018 from the feedback they gave; however it did achieve a Gold.

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Here’s the process for entering The Guild’s Image of the Month competition, from my perspective. 1. Make an image. 2. Show your buddy group friends and receive constructive criticism. 3. Make adjustments to the image. 4. Show your buddy group friend again. 5. Make more adjustments. 6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 as many times as is needed. 7. Enter it into the competition before midnight at the end of the month. 8. Wait for the results at lunchtime on the 21st of the month. Hopefully, they’ll all be awarded Golds; if not, get feedback from a Judge or Mentor.

Repeat the above 1 - 8 and keep improving. You can also add specific one-to-one training or group training to the above list but remember you can’t use images created in a workshop in the ‘IOM’

What makes a good Buddy Group? Having a seasoned pro in the group, ideally, someone who has been there and done the ‘IOM’ - it is a must. Also, the group needs to have plenty of activity for it to work; this means not only receiving feedback on your images but honestly commenting on others’ images where you can. If you’re new to ‘IOM’ and buddy groups, it may take a month or two to get into the process, but soon you’ll be spotting dust spots and all kinds of things missed by your fellow IOM’ers in the buddy group. Some images I’ve asked for feedback for in buddy groups have been given slight changes, other a lot more radical re-edits, in the end, they are your images, and the feedback is there to use however you wish.

Guild friends Finally, my guild friends have really helped improve an image; take in all of the information they give you and learn from their experience and mistakes. - Jason Allison www,jasonallison.co.uk Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

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Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

Spotlight On Neil Bremner

I was born and raised in Scotland and got into photography straight out of school, working as an Assistant for a company that specialised in Engineering Photography. Unfortunately, the company was already struggling when I joined, and I was made redundant after just ten months. In Aberdeen, there were very few photography opportunities, so I got a job working in a music shop, and once I was at a more senior level, I used the company to move to London when I was 22. As soon as I was there, I started looking for another assisting job which I found in 1999 working for a Commercial Photographer called Adrian Wroth. After September 11th, 2001, marketing budgets were slashed, and Adrian asked me to go freelance which wasn’t ideal as there wasn’t much work anywhere, and I joined Venture Portraits in 2002 as a photographer. Although many disliked the company, I was in my element and stayed with them for five years as a Style Director. I left in 2007 to get a ‘normal’ Monday to Friday in Marketing. Shortly after my first daughter was born, in 2010, I was offered another Marketing job, this time in Bath, and we moved again. Sadly after a year, the company lost a lot of money in a month, and I was, once again, made redundant. I was devastated. I had given a lot of thought to photography; I’d missed it. I applied and joined a Portrait Studio in Bath but quickly realised that I no longer liked working for other people. During the year, I used my time to put together a business plan, and in 2013 I opened my Portrait Studio in Glastonbury called Made Portraits. www.madeportraits.co.uk

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“ At school, I had always loved art and a keen interest in animation. Aberdeen was home to the Grays School of Art and I thought I would go there once I finished school. For my final year, my Higher Art (Scotland’s equivalent to A Levels at that time) course was my priority. I had decided I wanted to do animation and present the acetates and a finished animated video. My Art teacher was excited as he’d never had anyone do this, so he encouraged me to pursue this but to produce an animation, I would need to photograph the acetates. To have access to the photographic equipment in the school, he said I needed to sign up for his photography course, although given only three other pupils were doing the course, I’m sure he also wanted to build up the numbers. Once I picked up the camera, I was all in. It completely changed my perspective on art. Through speaking to a friend of the family who was a photographer, he said I’d learn a lot more about photography through assisting than University, so that’s what I did.” - Neil

Q: What is the most challenging area of your photography? Conforming. We all talk about our unique selling points (USPs), but if you look at the vast majority of photographers out there, they have the same USPs as each other. When I worked for the photography studio before opening on my own, they took pride in being different while everything they were photographing was the same as everyone else. They claimed they offered a unique experience but again, it was the same as any other studio. The day I decided to open on my own, I started to work out how to create a USP rather than just claiming to have one. My route was humour filled composites and just images that made you laugh. Initially, clients didn’t buy into it; after some time, it became the clients who choose my studio and that I am proud of.

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Over the years, I have lost my way a little, looking at results in photography competitions and thinking perhaps I should not be trying to tick the boxes of what I think does. However, I very quickly realised that I was allowing competitions to direct my photography rather than myself - I soon stopped! It’s very easy to believe you need to conform to what others are doing photographically, but doing so gives you the same USP as everyone else, meaning it’s not unique at all.

Q: Best buy for under £50? Tracing Paper for Commercial work and a Minion Fart Gun for making kids laugh.

Q: What do you specifically look for first when creating your images? I shoot both Portraiture and Commercial work, so both are approached differently. With Portraits, I love humour and storytelling. To understand each individual client, I talk to the families. I ask the parents to tell me about their children. I ask the children to describe their parents and their siblings where applicable. I try to find out who’s the cheekiest, who’s the loudest, who’s the funniest, or whatever else I think I can play use during the sessions to tell their story. Commercial photography is different because you are photographing for a brand. I tend to either work to the client brief or look into the industry, product, or service to ensure that what we’re doing fits into the higher-end part. For the most part, e-commerce dominates this type of work; however, I like to create something special for a client when time allows so they can see that they don’t always have to go down the route of simplicity. Most clients can’t visualise something creative, and the only way to get more creative work is to plant the seed yourself.

Q: What motivates you to get up in the morning? Some mornings it’s the desire to create something new. On others, it’s just the alarm going off and the knowledge that I have to get up for the school run. It’s hard. We all feel this need to project a persona of getting up and go, and everything is brilliant, but the truth is, self-motivation can be challenging! The one thing I know is I love my job, and I love that I get to do something that is my hobby and my passion. I love that I get to be creative, and the only limitation is myself and my imagination, but some days, I don’t feel it and, on those days, I have to put on the fake persona, so my clients don’t pick up on it. If I don’t have anyone booked in at the studio, I use those days to do something for me. That may be that I don’t pick up the camera, or I’ll photograph something or try a new style that I’ve never done before. Over lock-down, I experimented with my photography, and now I have one day a month blocked out on my diary for a play day.

Q: Favourite suppliers?

Fotospeed, Print Foundry, and Premier Image.

Q: Favourite place in the world and why? Wherever my girls are, I don’t care where I am as long as my girls are there with me.

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Q: How has your style of photography developed or grown since you first started? Over the years, I’ve done a lot of things. I’ve looked at other photographers’ work. I’ve sought feedback from judges or mentors. I’ve watched videos, and I’ve done training days, but the truth is the most valuable thing I’ve done is an experiment. I genuinely believe that we will only develop as photographers and have a style if we make mistakes along the way, so if you want to educate yourself, experiment. I looked back on the work I was doing when I opened it while preparing to write this, and although I’ve definitely refined my work, the heart of what I was doing was there. I can definitely tell it’s my work but perhaps just a little untidier and not quite as elaborate. There was a time that I would make things far more complicated than it needed to be, and that’s something I try not to do now when I don’t need to.

Q: One piece of equipment that you cannot do without? I’m guessing saying my camera is a given, but in addition to it, I’d have to say my tripod. I have a pretty decent aluminium Manfrotto tripod with a 3-way head, and for my composites and my commercial work, it’s my go-to item every time. I’ve recently seen a couple of sponsored ads for some great-looking tripods, and I am tempted, but I only buy equipment if I believe it will make me more money, and my current tripod set-up does everything I need it to do.

Q: Favourite lens in your camera bag? Panasonic S1 and S1R, and two lenses. That’s it! The 24-105 F4 and the 70-200 f2.8 for when I need it. I probably use the 24-105 for most of the work I do, but there are times when I need the 70-200 for a job that dictates. I went through a phase of thinking prime was king, but the truth is for the work I do, I can achieve everything I need with these two lenses.

Q: How do you proof your work? In 2017, I purchased a Canon Pro 1000 printer so I could print all of my work. My computer and printer match nearperfect every time. I only work with two suppliers, and I now have a couple of proofing actions within Photoshop that I know will mean the prints come back as close to the screen as I could achieve. Before I replaced my iMac in 2019, I used to calibrate my monitor weekly, and the irony was, it caused more problems than it resolved. Now I’ll run a test print every month and check against the screen. I only calibrate now if I have any inconsistency, which isn’t a lot. I’m sure there’s a lot of people that will be appalled by that, but it’s the age-old adage of “ if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Q: What is your turnaround from your photo shoot to supplying your images to your client for proofing? It’s entirely based on my diary and my clients but on average, I’ll have a viewing with a portraiture client within a week, and a commercial job will be delivered within 2-3 days. I’m generally quite careful with my diary to spacing things out to ensure I have the time to get things done. On the occasions that it’s simply not possible, then I’ll come back to work in the evenings once the kids are in bed to finish things off. Time management was the hardest thing to resolve when I first opened, but I’ve managed to fix that by simply blocking sections of the diary out.

Q: Do you use a tripod? If so, how important is it for your photography? With my composites, I have to photograph several elements without the camera moving. With Commercial product imagery, you find that there are many tiny tweaks required, which, if the camera is moving between every image, are nearly impossible to resolve. Hence, it’s the most important piece of equipment in my studio.

Q: How important is Photoshop|Lightroom | Post-Processing to your photography? It’s entirely down to what the end result is that I’m trying to achieve. It makes me smile when I hear that post-processing isn’t real photography because I learnt in a dark room, and sometimes, we’d do things in there that were the same idea but just different challenges. I am a great believer in getting things right in-camera as much as possible. That is the art of photography. Still, Photoshop for me can be an extension of the camera, so if something is quite simply not achievable in-camera or exceptionally complicated, then Photoshop is a must. I’ll be honest Lightroom is nothing more to me than the software I use to select the images I’ll work on in Photoshop. I never use Lightroom for retouching. It doesn’t fit with my work flow that way, so I’ve never taken the time to learn it in the same way as I have Photoshop.

Q: What is your favourite place or subject that you have photographed and why? This is a really tough question to answer. I don’t have a place as I love working in the studio; any studio. Subject-wise, I love children, but once they are past the baby stage and are toddlers and above. I love to hear their laughs; I love how they interact with each other, with their family and me, love the things they say, and even love how they don’t always behave.

Q: Developing your marketplace, how important was it to create your brand in the area you are based? It goes back to this USP thing. There are a few other studios in surrounding cities and towns, and they mostly all do the same thing as the next as well as the life stylers, of which there are quite a few. Again, they’re not easy to distinguish from the next, so I could count on one hand the photographers I know just by looking at their work. I didn’t want to be just another studio, so my brand, for lack of a better word, was built around my love of humour and having a laugh which has been the backbone of my studio. Years of working in marketing, I have learned that a brand is only as good as the delivered product and not the other way around. I’ve had days where I’ve met people who have asked what I do, and I’ve said I run Made Portraits, and you can see the blank expression on their face… I then tell them I photograph babies eating lemons, and they instantly know that so be unique; that’s your brand.

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Q: Who inspires you? I don’t have anyone specific, as in the days of Google and image searches, I tend to find I come across images rather than people, but I’ll tell you a story that’s only known by a small handful of people. Back in 2016, I saw an image achieve Gold in the IOM of a Bugsy Malone styled group shot of kids, and I was blown away. It was incredible and way better than anything I could ever achieve. I looked up who the photographer was, and I picked up the phone to call someone I now know, named Simon Newbury. I basically praised his image and said if he ever needed an assistant, I would happily drive wherever he wanted, and I’d carry his bags for him just to watch him work. He didn’t take me up on the offer, but it was a lovely conversation, and I was happy just to acknowledge his skill. A few months later, I attended my first ever Guild Awards Dinner. I was seated next to a lovely lady who introduced herself as Abi. When I asked if she was a photographer, she replied “no, my husband Simon” who was sitting on the other side of her. I can’t remember if the penny dropped straight away or if it was a few minutes later, but I do remember that when it did, I turned into the biggest groupie fan-boy idiot and got way too excited for a middle-aged man. Thankfully, Simon saw the funny side, but that was probably the only time I’ve reacted like that. He is someone I truly admire (and I wouldn’t mind having his trophy cabinet either). Other than that, it does tend to be images over people.

Q: How do you relax? During a lock-down when the studio was closed, my wife was still working for the NHS as a dental nurse, so going into the studio and playing with new ideas and new techniques was my way of relaxing while I was closed. Now we’re open again; the reverse would be true, so spending time with my family and going out for one of the many walks we can do in Somerset would be the way I’d spend my time off. I used to cycle a lot and need to get back into the habit of doing that as I really loved my bike, but it’s just getting the time to do it.

Q: Favourite food? My wife makes the greatest roast potatoes on the planet. They don’t even need to be served with anything else; I could happily just eat a bowl of them on their own.

Q: Where next? I hope to continue on in my journey for the next level of qualification. I’ve seen some debates on a couple of photography pages in recent weeks asking are qualifications obsolete. Clients don’t really understand what it means if you say you’re a Craftsman or an Associate or whatever it may be, and I understand that view. Truth be told, I kind of share that view. My clients don’t know what it means, and yes, I could say to them, but if they already like my work, there’s nothing more to it. For me, I really think qualifications are a personal thing, and that’s it. The greatest product photographer I’ve known was a guy I used to work for, and he never bought into the association thing. He did what he did, and his clients were his priority. His lack of qualification held zero relevance to his skill or ability. He was (and is) incredible! For me, personally, my goal since I opened up on my own photography studio has been to one day achieve my Master Craftsman and for no other reason than self-satisfaction. Will it make me a better photographer? The qualification indeed won’t, but the personal development and focus I’ll have to go through to achieve it will, and that’s the key. People that have never done it won’t necessarily grasp that side of it. Yes, we can push ourselves and motivate ourselves to evolve, but when you have a final goal such as a qualification, it certainly helps. I’m fairly sure if Mo Farrah was only to run for the pleasure of running and not for competitive athletics, he’d still be amazing, but would never have achieved the level he was in the world without competition and training.

- Thank you Neil for such an informative interview for Creative Light Magazine. Julie Oswin - Editor

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MARCH & APRIL 2021

Andrew Ford

Caroline Dell

Jackie Eke

Peter Rooney

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: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

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Chris Chambers

Jackie Eke

Peter Rooney

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: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

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: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

Are you Insane?

Rob Hill

A Judge’s thoughts on Professionalism and Competitions

Rob Hill spent over 25 years in senior marketing and engineering roles in the technology business globally. He now has a successful product photography / marketing consultancy business and writes for several well-known technology companies. He qualified as a Master Craftsman with the Guild and is now a mentor and member of the judging panel. His commercial work can be seen at marketingshotz.com and his personal work is at robhillphoto.com

Death and taxes. Two things that in life you can guarantee - according to age-old wisdom. Well, that might have been true a while ago, but I want to add one more to the list. Here it is:‘Post on social media including the words photographer, amateur and professional and you are guaranteed a heated debate. Add judge and competition and you have dynamite.’ While there are as many definitions of the two terms as people you ask, as far as competitions are concerned, the distinction between ‘professional’ and ‘amateur’ doesn’t matter – not one iota – all entrants are photographers. In fact, even though many professional (full time, for money) photographers enter competitions, they enter in other genres – not where they earn their crust. There is a well-known (and respected) social documentary photographer who regularly scores highly in IOM with images of birds – and lots of other examples of professionals stepping outside their genres for competition. Some have even said that there should be a ‘handicap’ system to level the playing field – usually meaning to ‘give the amateurs a chance’. If you look through competition results – IOM or elsewhere – it is clear that in a significant minority (if not a majority) of cases, it is amateurs that take the awards (winning in genres other than where they earn their money). Amateurs are generally those with the time, skill, passion and enthusiasm to do a subject justice while I have heard many professional photographers bemoaning the mundane subjects they have to shoot to put food on the table. We are all photographers, some are better than others, some have more experience but we are all learning – let’s leave it there. Some of you may know me – six years ago I was at my first Guild awards and I got my ‘Qualified’ certificate and came third in ‘people’. I watched people collecting glassware and winning titles with ‘….of the year’ in them. I hoped one day I may get some ‘glass’; I was sure I would never get one of those ‘…of the year’ titles. So, I decided to follow the ‘Guild process’ and got myself a mentor – the initial assessment was that ‘I wasn’t very good at people photography’ and that my images lacked ‘congruence’ (look it up…. I did). Over time I started to do better in IOM, eventually getting my first gold. Having said that, there were months where I ‘doubted the parentage’ of the judges and seriously though about putting my cameras on eBay. They say IOM is a roller coaster – that much is true – but stick with the ride – it’s worth it. I eventually came up with an idea for a panel and I remember arguing with my mentor that I wasn’t ready while he insisted that I was. I was in the middle of moving house but I managed to mount my images and get ready for assessment. No-one was more shocked than me when I got upgraded to ‘Master Craftsman’ and then on the same day I was invited to join the judging panel – two shocks in one day. I didn’t take up the offer straight away and continued entering IOM, I changed my focus and started entering commercial style images which seemed to be well received. Even in those days (2016) competition was tough, with some bloke entering aircraft images always scooping the top awards. Anyway, I was lucky enough to get ‘All round photographer of the year 2016’ and I won ‘Commercial Image of the year’ the same year – as well as Runner-Up. 60

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The purpose of that story is to show that you can rise up through the Guild from someone who has no training and never won an award, to achieve success. I’m still grateful to my mentor (Andrew Appleton) who gave me the ‘tough love’ that I needed to succeed and we became friends. Unfortunately, he passed away in May 2020 – a sad loss. I eventually said I would like to join the panel if the offer was still open – it was. I hadn’t realised that this involved a structured and lengthy training process. I remember the first discussion with one of the experienced judges when they told me that there were two very important things for a Guild judge; ‘You must judge all images on their merits against the framework – you will never, ever, use the word ‘like’’ - ‘You must be able to change your mind’. The first is clear – you cannot favour any genre or style of photography – and in more than two years I have never heard the word ‘like’ used during the judging process – ever. The second was related to the discussions that judges regularly have when there is a split opinion on an image – or a panel of work. In fact, the experienced judge called me again and asked again whether I could change my mind. I remember my reply – ‘No.’ <silence>. ‘Oh, wait – yes I can – there, I proved it, I just changed my mind.’ Not the reply they were expecting, but they went away happy, with a smile (or at least a wry grin) on their face – the point had been made. Although I made light of it, this is a really important point in the Guild. Recently, I was part of a regular monthly panel of three judges that reviewed all of the images that could have been silver or gold, as well as those that had a wide spread of votes (or a single outlying score). We must have covered close to 200 images. However, with a discussion about the merits of the image against the set criteria we quickly reach consensus with the judges stating their case (‘talking the image up / down’), re-assessing their position and changing their initial opinion as necessary. These discussions are really valuable as you are exposed to other judge’s opinions and are always without any hint of ego or arrogance. One good positive is that no one judge can have more influence than another, the decisions are always down to a collective decision. The main part of training to be a judge with the Guild are a series of ‘dummy runs’ where head office sends a zip file with past images and a spreadsheet to score them as if you were judging. You then get the actual scores and have a discussion with one of the Directors as to how well you fit the judging ‘style’ of the panel. Once I was able to score consistently within a couple of points of the rest of the panel. My training was complete. In parallel with this, as a prospective judge you are invited to in-person judging as an ‘observer’. This means you have no vote and are not part of the panel, but quite often before the judges discuss the panel, you are asked to give your opinion to check that you are aligned. There is a good deal of process and etiquette during panel judging and this is learned during these sessions. In many online forums it is quite common to see entrants complaining that competition results are unfair or inconsistent, or both. I guess on the basis of ‘no smoke without fire’ some of these may be at least partially true often in smaller competitions there is often a single ‘judge’ who may be self-appointed, have no training and have a preference for certain types or genres of images. As part of my induction process, I really got to see and understand the precise process behind all Guild judging. For example, in IOM, a minimum of three separate judges all judge separately and ‘blind’ (no knowledge of the author) to a written and published set of twelve criteria that are internationally adopted. I learned that the next step in the process is a review of up to 1,600 entries every month and ALL images that are close to a border between grades or those where there are more than a couple of points between judge’s scores are then reviewed live by a panel of three or more qualified judges. I’m now involved in these discussions which are always passionate and spirited, but never heated – there is a well-structured discussion with judges justifying their scores and always reaching a consensus. Only after that lengthy process are scores finalised. This process is repeated for ten months of every year, with a team of fifteen judges and several Guild head office staff committing time to make sure that all results are fair, impartial and checked. I was pleased that I was about to become part of such a well-defined and fair process. So, I was confirmed as a judge and the announcement was made in a Guild newsletter. I’d just transitioned from being an IOM entrant to the ‘other side of the fence’ where I saw, and scored, all of the images in one or two categories – which can change from month to month. Even during the first year there is regular monitoring and feedback on your scoring performance. In fact, when judges meet for in-person judging there is often a short meeting afterwards where the Directors spring a dozen images on us to judge, followed by a discussion and review to make sure we are all still aligned. Being on the other side of the fence gives a different – and very interesting – perspective to IOM. You get to see the trends in images, as well as the (mostly positive) comments about IOM and judges in the Guild Facebook group(!). Many trends and comments come up with surprising regularity, so these comments may be useful to IOM entrants: The basics: If you want to be successful in any competition then, as a minimum, you have to get the basics right. Firstly, read the rules and follow them. Recently, otherwise good images have failed as they have been below minimum size. I’ve lost count of the number of times judges have commented on (and run training on) issues like dust spots and cloning errors – yet we still see these and are frustrated that we have to mark down these images.

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Look at your images at 100% (you should, because the judges will), turn them upside down and check again after you have exported the RAW files to JPGs as sharpening can produce artefacts. One judge prints out their competition images and pins them above their workstation for days to find any issues before entering them into a competition. I didn’t go this far but I checked (and graded) all my IOM entries against the judging criteria before entering them. Impact: When you have got the basics right (and most people do) then this is often the difference between no award and an award, or a low award and a silver or gold. Probably the easiest way to explain this is ‘would it stop someone scrolling if they saw it on a page’. If you can make a judge say ‘wow’ then you are well on the way to an award. The Guild publishes the silvers and golds every month, and the golds are on the home page of Mediafiler. Look at these images, not to copy them (see below), but look at what they have in common – they are all strong images that make you stop and look. They may be of a relatively unique subject, or an unusual view of a common subject. Judges cannot determine the time you took creating or editing an image or any other challenges that you faced. I have had a gold for an image that took less than 30 minutes studio and editing time and, equally, had classified for an image I spent several hours editing. Competitions do not reward effort, they reward achievement. Sending in sets of very similar images is another way you can lose impact. My mentor always told me not to enter three ‘substantially similar’ images as ‘it looks to the judges that you can’t tell which are your strongest images’. Essentially, the later images in a similar sequence lose impact. Last month’s winners: Often we see several close copies of an image that was successful in a previous IOM. Presumably, entrants assume that the judges ‘liked’ that image so they try to replicate the success with something similar. Remember, Guild judges do not ‘like’ images – but they give high awards for innovative, well executed, images that meet the judging criteria. Often, a particular type or style of image will become ‘fashionable’ for a while but, in many cases, these struggle to score well for impact. “…but my clients like it…”: This is something I often see posted on Facebook pages more often than you might expect. While I am sure that it is true and many images that achieve ‘classified’ (or above) would be more than acceptable to a paying client, this does not mean that they will (or should) do well in any competition (including IOM). As a product photographer, the images that I earn most of my income from are simple e-commerce shots with relatively flat lighting on an even white background. While clients demand these images and happily pay for them, I would never consider entering them in IOM as they are simply not well-suited. Mentoring: The Guild offers access to most of the judging panel for 1:1 mentoring which can relate to any photography-related subject, but is often used for IOM feedback and coaching. It is disappointing to read comments such as ‘I had mentoring but it did nothing for me’ in the FB group. While the mentoring process does not remove the need for some work (and often soul-searching) on the part of the mentee, it has been shown for years that people who have received mentoring do much better with panels (Qualified, Craftsman, Master Craftsman) and in IOM. So why do some people fail to benefit from mentoring? Bluntly, I believe while they may listen during the mentoring session, they fail to take on board points raised and enter images with the same issues month-in, monthout – often accompanied by comments about ‘their clients liking it’ on the 21st of the month. This was probably explained best by Albert Einstein (or whoever as the attribution of the quote is disputed):“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” SUMMARY Competitions such as the Image of the Month can be daunting, but they are also a great way to develop your skills. There is no need for fear of failure as your results are never published (unless you get gold or silver), and even the judges don’t know whose images they are scoring. While there is no foolproof guarantee of a path to success, shooting what you are passionate about, having the courage of your convictions regarding the images you enter, assessing your entries against the criteria, be prepared to adapt and develop are all things that the most successful IOM entrants do. - Rob Hill

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WHAT DO JUDGES LOOK FOR? It is sometimes said that the judging of photography is subjective (i.e., a matter of opinion. This can be so but isn’t in the Guild’s case, for our judging process minimises the potential of subjectivity by judging through a Panel process utilising experienced judges from varied judging backgrounds. Further, the judges have a set of criteria to consider. The criteria are based on the fact that photography is a combination of art and science. Here are the twelve points The Guild’s judges look at:-

Impact: This is the sense one gets upon viewing an image for the first time. Compelling images evoke laughter, pride, sadness, anger, wonder, or another intense emotion.

Presentation: Judges will look for a finished look. Borders are not allowed in the Image of the Month

(IOM) competition. However, when submitting for a print competition or a qualification panel, the mounts and borders used, either physical or digital, should support and enhance both the submission and individual images.

Technical excellence: Judges consider the quality of the image/print itself as presented for viewing. Lighting: The use and control of light are central to photography and critical to the Judges. Regardless of whether the light applied to an image is man-made or natural. Judges will look for the effective use of it in order to enhance an image and the purpose of the image.

Technique: This is the approach used to create the image. Printing, lighting, posing, capture, presentation media, and more are part of the technique applied to an image.

Creativity: Judges look for the original, fresh, and external expression of the maker’s imagination to convey an idea, message, or purpose.

Storytelling: This refers to the image’s ability to communicate to the viewer and evoke imagination. Subject matter: This should always be appropriate to the story being told in an image. Colour balance: Judges look at the effective use of colours and tones in an image. An image in which the tones work together, effectively supporting the image, can enhance harmony. By contrast, a lack of harmony can be used to evoke diverse feelings or effects.

Composition:

Central to the design of an image and composition should bring all the visual elements together in concert to express the purpose of the image. Proper composition holds the viewer in the image and prompts the viewer to look where the creator intends. Effective composition can be pleasing or disturbing, depending on the intent of the image-maker.

Centre of interest: This is the point or points on the image where the maker wants the viewer to stop as they view the image. There can be primary and secondary centres of interest, and occasionally there will be no specific point of interest as the entire scene collectively serves as the focus of interest.

Style: Judges look for a specific style, i.e., your specific style. This can be defined in a number of ways. It

might be a specific genre or simply be recognisable as the characteristics of how a specific artist applies light to a subject. It can positively impact an image when the subject matter and the style are appropriate for each other, or it can have a negative effect when they are at odds. There is also an overriding arch to all the above – ‘Congruence or Harmony.’ In other words, all the components above must work together to create ‘one.’ The strongest submissions are cohesive and evidence consistency in all areas.

Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

The 11-Steps to 4-Figure Portrait Sales By Ronan Ryle

I often hear that it is not possible to deliver 4-figure average sales values in the UK market. That 4-figure averages are only possible in the US market, and the UK is different. This mindset is misplaced and simply untrue once you align your business to your client’s needs while adopting an abundance mindset.

Step 1: Understand that average sales value(ASV) on its own is only half the picture. You must multiply your average sales value by the number of sales to have the whole picture. Too often, I see photographers chase an average sales value target that is merely an ego goal. An ASV of £10,000 with only one sale a year is not a business. Instead, a 4-Figures ASV with the required number of sales is the secret to creating a six and seven-figure yearly revenue.

UK Photographers in BSA are achieving 4-figure averages while earning six-figure but seven-figure annual revenues. While this journey is not easy, it is simple for those willing to make the journey. Every business venture is a journey of discovery, learning and pivoting until you align everything together to achieve these results. Yes, you are correct that I haven’t made this journey with a

Step 2: Knowing your ‘purpose and why is vital to your success. Realising that it is not about being recognised as a great artist that creates the sale is critically important. Instead, your goal should be to 'Be Seen, Be Heard, Be Understood not for what you do but the difference you make to your client’s lives.’

photography business. However, I have created multiple companies that have achieved high seven-figure revenues. Today, I have four business units doing this. The principles of running a great business are universal and transferable to all companies. Enough about us, What is more important is that at BSA, we are working with photography businesses already achieving these results with others on the journey to making it happen.

Step 3: You need to realise that not everyone is your ideal client. It is impossible to create a sustainable, profitable business if you try and satisfy everyone. That is why making your ideal ClientGold Avatar is crucial to success. Your ClientGold Avatar helps you identify your ideal ClientGold while helping you determine who is not likely to be your ideal ClientGold.

Step 4: You are not the Hero, Your Client is. Does this make you

Business Success is not a journey for the faint-hearted, and it is

sad? Well, the truth is the consumer doesn’t care if you are an

not an easy journey. However, it is a simple one once you

award-winning photographer. They only care about WIIFM. Yep,

follow the correct map. Here are the 11-Steps required to

you guessed it. "What’s in it for me?". Making this mindset switch

deliver you success.

is crucial to business success.

: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

The 11-Steps to 4-Figure Portrait Sales By Ronan Ryle

Step 5: Have you aligned your price list for success? Is it built to ensure that decision fatigue by your client will not occur? Has it been created to ensure your business numbers are reached based on your expected sales mix and existing prices? If not, then you must do this.

Step 9: Do you take rejection as a personal slight? Does it hurt your Ego? If yes, you need to change your mindset and adopt a ‘Go for No’ philosophy. If you celebrate each ‘No', then believe me that more 'Yeses’ will automatically happen. Check out the book ‘Go For No’ by Richard Fenton & Andrea Waltz.

Step 6: Every client’s story is different. Have you built your

Step 10: Do you know your numbers? Have you converted these to

experience and sales process around discovering what each

KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) that you measure daily, weekly and

client’s individual story is? If you genuinely want a four-figure

monthly? Do you wear these on your sleeve? If not, then without doing

portrait average with the quantity required to create the

this, you are not likely to succeed. Do it, understand what drives each

business of your dreams, then this is a must.

KPI, and build the foundation to create your dream business.

Step 7: Do you photograph your sessions to sell products

Step 11: Does your marketing budget deliver you the leads

that satisfy your client’s needs while also ensuring the

you require to have enough conversations with potential clients?

products you offer align with the quality of service and

No matter how perfect your sales process is, you will not have

product you deliver?

enough bookings to deliver your desired sales unless you have enough conversations.

Step 8: Have you documented each step of your Client experience? If you have, have you reviewed it from the perspective of your client? It is essential to view your sales process through your client’s eyes rather than your lens as the business owner. View it as your Clients Buying Process rather than Your Selling Process.

We discussed at the beginning of this article that the journey is not an easy one. Nothing worthwhile in life is easy. However, it is simple once you have the desire, attitude, perseverance, and support to make it so. YES, YOU CAN!!! In my next article, I will interview a UK based photographer who is achieving this! Stay tuned!!!

Why not join BSA for our 30-Day FREE trial and complete the 14-Day challenge to ensure you fill your business all year round with Hiher-Pying clients? Click here to learn more.

Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

Exclusive offer for Guild Members 20% off any CEWE PHOTOBOOK and any CEWE WALL ART* Offer available on any size or format using the CEWE Creator Software. For information on how to redeem this offer, log in to The Guild website photoguild.co.uk and view the Partners and Discount section.

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www.cewe-photoworld.com/guild 66

: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

CEWE are proud to be a trade partner of The Guild of Photographers We’re Europe’s leading photo printing company, known for our passion for photography and commitment to delivering outstanding print quality. Combining your creativity with our craftsmanship is the best way to share the photographs you’re most proud of.

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Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

Guild of Photographers Successful Qualified Panels - April 2021 “An excellent reason for joining the Guild is to submit your work for assessment and progress through our membership levels. It is a way to measure and evidence your skill level, as well as show your customers that you are committed to providing them with the very best service. Whilst photography-related qualifications have always been a controversial issue, how do you judge an art form? Our ‘Qualified’ status aligned to the standards of competence that reflect a level where the customer should be ‘pleased with the results’ when employing the services of a skilled tradesman (the photographer). In other words, ‘Qualified’ indicates professional ‘competence’ to a level where the Guild is willing to recognise the photographer as an ambassador of the association, so those who achieve that level should be proud of doing so”. - Steve & Lesley Thirsk

(Please note that when joining the Guild, Qualifications from other respectable organisations are transferable at ‘Q’ or ‘L’ level. They may also be at higher levels, but this is not guaranteed as it is subject to a review of the relevant submission or members work) Ref: The Guild of Photographers - Qualifications

: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

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: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

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Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

PPI vs. DPI: What’s the Difference? Philip Yale The question of image resolution and print size comes up again and again in discussions. - Should I export my files at 300PPI ? - For web use, should I export my files at 72PPI ? - How large will my 4000px x 3000px file print? - Is DPI the same as PPI when you print? Major companies like Adobe still encourage us to export images for web use at 72DPI (simultaneously using both the wrong terminology and persuading us that 72PPI is relevant), shows just how poorly understood the subject is. So, what is the real truth behind PPI, DPI, print resolution, and screen resolution? Can we control them all? Should we tinker with them? There’s a lot to write about on this topic, so I’ve split it into two articles; part two will be published in the next edition (Issue 44). In Part I, we’ll consider PPI and its relevance to digital files and prints. In Part II, we’ll look at image re-sampling and also DPI.

DIGITAL WORLD DIGITAL IMAGE SIZE Digital file sizes are measured in terms of ‘pixels’. Regardless of the type of sensor in your camera, a raw image file will contain a fixed number of pixels. If, for example, your camera sensor produces a file that is 6,000 pixels wide by 4,000 pixels high, then the camera resolution is advertised as 24Megapixels (MP) (6,000 x 4,000 = 24,000,000). That is the number of pixels available in the physical file.

Part I

FILE RESOLUTION

The resolution of a digital file is commonly (but wrongly) expressed as PPI (Pixels per Inch); I’m afraid that’s not right because the concept of “distance” (an inch, a centimetre, a light-year, or any other unit) is completely irrelevant to a digital file. It only knows how many pixels it contains and how they are arranged (e.g., 6,000 x 4,000). Equally wrong is the very common tendency to use PPI and DPI interchangeably when they don’t mean the same thing at all. We’ll discuss DPI in Part II in the next edition of Creative Light, but for now, let’s state that DPI has absolutely nothing at all to do with a digital file or image. Only PPI has any meaning for digital. Even then, we must remember that a digital image has no resolution until it is displayed on a screen or printed; until that happens, it simply has horizontal and vertical pixel dimensions.

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To demonstrate this point, take an image of any size and export it as a JPEG from Lightroom (or Photoshop) three separate times - 3000PPI, 300PPI, and the last one at 3PPI. Now open and view all three files in turn on your computer. They will all look identical. Furthermore, the file sizes on the computer disk will be identical because each file still contains the same number of pixels. Changing the PPI setting does not alter the file contents in any way at all. On-screen display size is determined by the size and density of the pixels in that output device, which is fixed, and which (confusingly) is also referred to as PPI. This is Screen Resolution and is not the same as the PPI in your Lightroom or Photoshop export dialogue box. A 15” MacBook Pro Retina, for example, has screen dimensions of 2880px x 1800px. Because the screen width is 13” (15” is the diagonal dimension), this means that the screen pixels are laid out horizontally with a density of 221 pixels in every linear inch (221PPI). Therefore, if my file has a width of 2048px, it will display at (2048 / 221) = 9.25” wide. Apple’s iPhone X, by comparison, has screen pixel counts of 2436px by 1125px and squeezes these into a display just 5.3” wide at a density of 458PPI. Our same image from above would display at (2048/458) = 4.47” wide. Incidentally, a mythical 72PPI “web display standard” ever happened at all due to the early Apple Macintosh computers back in the 1980s. The built-in 9” display of these computers had a screen resolution of 72PPI. Eventually, both Apple and other screen manufacturers abandoned this resolution as screen technology improved. These days, you won’t find any screens with a resolution as low as 72PPI, but the assumption for 72PPI internet usage has somehow persisted. Many people probably mistakenly think that 72PPI will help web pages load faster than 300PPI (it simply doesn’t). It isn’t true.

THE PRINTED WORLD PPI So, if PPI has no relevance to digital files, what is it used for? When you export a file from your editing software and set its PPI value, you are embedding an internal instruction that will be passed to any printer to tell how many of the available pixels in the file it should use to create one inch of output on the paper. You can see this effect in the Photoshop Image Size dialog box, which displays information about image size and pixel dimensions, and print size at whatever print resolution value is specified (PPI). Note that the Re-sample box is checked by default. It is crucial to turn this OFF if you want to avoid seriously messing up your file quality (re-sampling will be covered in more detail in Part II).

Figure 2: The Default Image Size dialog box

Figure 1: Image Size Menu Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

When we unchecked re-sampling, notice that the Width/Height/Resolution fields become linked with the chain icon. You cannot change one value without a corresponding change in one of the others because the number of available pixels dictates the dimensions and the resolution. If your file has dimensions of 4000px by 3000px, and you export it with a PPI value of 200, it will be printed at a size of 20” by 15” (4000/200 by 3000/200).

Figure 3: Image Size dialog box with Resample un-checked

Figure 4: Print Dimensions at 200PPI

If you export the same file at 100PPI, it will print at a size of 40” x 30”.

Figure 5: Print Dimensions at 100PPI

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We tend not to do things this way, though. When you send a file to be printed (and probably if you print your files, too), it is more natural to specify how large we want the finished print to be without worrying too much about the PPI settings. Let’s go back to the above 4000px by 3000px file. If you sent this to a print company, the chances are that you would export the JPEG file at 300PPI (because that’s what the print companies always ask for). At the 300PPI that you specified when you exported it, that file will print at a size of (4000/300 by 3000/300) = 13.3” by 10”. You instruct the print company to print it at a size of 40” by 30” (because that’s what the client wants)… so they do. And it looks fine! How is this possible? Well, your 40” by 30” print no longer has a resolution of 300PPI; your print now has a resolution of 100PPI because that’s the only way to distribute the 4000px 40” width on the paper. You have simply stretched the available pixels until your print reached the desired size. Luckily a print that size will be viewed from a distance, so the relatively lower resolution won’t be noticeable. If you think 100PPI is too low, then you need to ensure that your original file has more than 4000px on the long side. So, print size and resolution (in PPI) are both linked. If you tell the printer to make the print larger, this will reduce the resolution because you’re “stretching” the available pixels in the file over a larger area. Because there can be no gaps between pixels, this stretching means that they must be reproduced at a larger size, so they start to become more noticeable. Conversely, if you export the file at a higher PPI value (a higher ‘file resolution’), it will produce a smaller print. It’s similar to exposing a photograph. If you change the shutter speed but want to keep the exposure the same, you have to change the aperture to compensate. You need to be aware of this because you may try to enlarge the print beyond an acceptable resolution, where you stretch the available pixels so much that you can start to see them. Very large prints at 100PPI are usually acceptable due to the likely viewing distance. As a guide, small prints should give small prints resolutions of 220PPI to 300PPI because we look at those more closely and notice if the resolution is too low. In short, don’t get too hung up on the PPI export value. It really doesn’t matter very much. As long as you have sufficient pixels in your file, you’re going to tell the printer how large you want your print (in inches), and the resulting print resolution will happen as a by-product of that. In Part II, we’ll look at what happens with the Re-sampling option added into the mix, and we’ll also discuss DPI, which the observant will notice we’ve avoided so far, even when talking about prints. - Philip Yale

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FINE ART FLOAT FRAME

A BEAUT YOUR FI leghorn

dit: Mark C

Image Cre

• Outstanding Fine Art (Giclee) Printing • Deckle Edged Finishing • Raised mounting creating a drop shadow effect

: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

TIFULLY FINISHED, UP-MARKET WAY OF PRESENTING INE ART (GICLEE) PRINTING • Rectangular, square and panoramic sizes • Choice of four contemporary frames • Industry beating value

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: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

Problem Solving with Gary Hill Gary has been a photographer for the last 11 years, following a career change. He is based in the North West where he specialises in bespoke portraiture for individuals and families. He is a Master Craftsman with the Guild as well as a Fellow of the Societies, and he has numerous awards to his name. Gary is a brand ambassador for Digitalab, Click Props and Backgrounds, a Friend of Graphistudio and a Sony Alpha Creator. He is however probably best known as an educator, being an exceptional trainer, especially in the areas of Lighting and Posing.

Hands Question One: “ I always seem to have problems posing hands in images. Have you any tips for ways to make it easier? “ Many people have issues with hands in portraits; making them look natural can be a real problem. One of the first things I say to photographers about hands is, if they don’t need to be in the shot, don’t put them in. So many times, they are added into a portrait, particularly a head shot when there is no need, and they add nothing to the image. I try and say that the next thing is to remember the golden rule – no fists, no Thunderbirds, and no claws! All of those will look awkward in portraiture (fists can be made to work, but they are tough to get right), so avoid wherever possible. A guide or ‘rule’ to remember on hand posing, try and present the ‘side of the hand’ to the camera wherever possible. The back of a hand should not be shown in a portrait in the upper half of the body or face unless the ‘back of the hand’ is included to make a statement. For example, my hands are inked, and sometimes I want to show that in an image, but the inked hands would be the focal area because they are the purpose of the shot.

Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

Hands to the face are interesting; sometimes they can look exquisite, and others just clumsy. Avoid placing the hand forward of the lip line; it will be in front of the plane of focus and will always look bigger. If possible, especially with a female subject, the hand to the face should ideally be behind the lip line and not dominate the image because it will be less in focus than the eyes. It’s also important to break the straight line from the forearm to the hand by breaking the wrist. Please see the example below and opposite.

Another tip I give is that if the hand is on the upper body or face, put it on the opposite side of the portrait’s main light. Hands, on average, are on stop brighter than the face as the face gets more sun and weathering. If the hands are on the main light side, they will catch the light before the light falls onto the face and appear brighter. This is to be avoided as you will then be on the computer darkening the hands in post-production. Also, being brighter, they will look more prominent. Placing the hands to the shadow side of the face will result in a more natural hand as the light will be softer and darker. “Fashion images need to have delicate hands to be elegant’ 80

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Shots of more than one person, the ‘hands’ can also make or break the image. Keep to the ‘rules’ where possible, especially in a group photograph. Try not to repeat the same positioning of the hands on every member of the group.

So, while hands are really important and a significant part of a person’s personality, they need to be handled well in an image to work.

Skin Tones Question Two: “ I see lots of Judges comments about arms, hands, and feet being differing skin tones to the rest of the image. Why does this happen, and how can I avoid it? “ Great question! Varying skin tones on an image is something that is becoming more common rather than less common in today’s photography, especially in fine art style of portraiture. When you look at colour, you are, in effect, looking at three different parts to any colour. The first part is the Hue; this is the colour or shade of the actual colour. For example, if we look at red, the old telephone box red is a particular hue, red wine is another, and the red in the lettering on Spar logos is another. They are all ‘red’ but all different shades or hues of red. The second part of colour is its saturation, how intense that colour of red is, from a soft subtle pink of a rose to the deep burgundy red of red wine there are differences in saturation that can show in how intense that colour is. The third part of colour, in simple terms, is luminance. How light or dark that colour is. The exact same shade of a colour can look vastly different depending on how much light hits the subject. Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

The original image had a pure red rectangle; the top lefthand side is still pure red (in Photoshop R 255, G 0, B 0). On the top right side, I added a curve (RBG Curve) and lifted the black point, no colour added, the bottom left I desaturated, the bottom right I lowered the white point on an RGB curve. So, in effect, I haven’t added any other colours to the red other than changing its saturation and luminance; technically, its ‘hue’ should have stayed the same, but it is clear it hasn’t. So what happens when light falls off in an image or during post production, we either tend to add a vignette or otherwise darken parts of it, resulting in massive shifts in how colours appear. That is what has happened here, so if you consider skin, for example, if the legs are darkened, they will look different from the skin on other parts of the body. In this example here of Ms. England April Banbury, I have made a selection of almost half of the image, added a curves layer to that side of the image, and pulled it down in the mid-tones. You can instantly see that the image has become more saturated in that part, and there is a definite colour shift in both the subject and the background. This is what happens. In the second example, a screen shot, I have changed the curve blend mode to Luminosity; this reduces the increase in saturation and only darkens the image—a beneficial fix. My personal preference is to add a hue saturation after changing the blend mode and just reducing the saturation slightly by clipping this layer to the curve layer (where the cursor is in the third image) to ensure it only affects where the curve layer has affected the image. This means we can get that vignette or darkening without the massive colour shifts. Be very wary of desaturating more than 11-15 as then you end up removing too much colour, and the skin can end up looking very grey, again, regularly seen. Changing light levels within an image in post-production takes time, and it is always better to have perfected the lighting at the point of capture. It is quicker to add another light or flag off part of the lighting once than to spend at least fifteen minutes correcting the lighting on every image in post-production. I love Photoshop as much as anyone else, but the skill of the photographer in capturing the image as intended will result in a cleaner, more satisfying result and, it is often far quicker than doing it in post. - Gary Hill Guild Panel Member, Judge & Mentor www.artoftheportrait.co.uk

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: May | June 2021 - Issue 43

Issue 43 - Creative Light Magazine :

TIP SHEET #6 Using a 50% Grey Layer for Flexible and Non-Destructive Dodging and Burning

Dodging and Burning has been around since, well…Photography but I never ventured into the world of film so never experienced mixing chemicals in my own dark room, developing pictures and using them to Dodge and Burn. Now although we’re now well into the age of Digital Photography the art and process of Dodging and Burning is still as important as ever BUT nowadays with Photoshop, Lightroom and so on, there are many ways to do so.

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In this tutorial I’ll take you through a technique that makes use of Photoshop’s Dodge and Burn Tools but in a Non-Destructive way so as to give much more flexibility, so here goes…

Step 1: 50% Grey Layer Add a New Layer to the top of the layer stack by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel. Rename this layer ‘dodge and burn’. The go EDIT > FILL and choose 50% Grey from the Contents Menu and click OK.

Note: Another way to add a 50% Grey Layer is by holding down the Alt / Option key and clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel. This brings up a dialog box. In here name the layer ‘dodge and burn’, in the Mode choose Soft Light and then place a tick in the Fill with SoftLight Neutral Color (50% Grey) checkbox and click OK

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Step 2: Dodge & Burn Tools From the Tool Bar choose the Dodge Tool and then in the options bar at the top of the screen leave the Range set to Midtones (makes no difference as we’re going to be working on a 50% grey layer anyway) but lower the Exposure (strength) to around 5% and keep a tick in the Protect Tones checkbox.

Tip: It’s best to keep the Exposure setting fairly low so that you gently build up the effect because when dodging and burning, before you realize it, you can very easily do too

Step 3: Dodge and Burn Now you’re all set to start Dodging and Burning. Now there’s so much can be said about how but let’s keep it simple and say that the main objective here pretty much is to brighten the bright parts and dark the dark parts. Check out the screen grab to see the areas I worked on.

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Tip: To only see the grey layer you’re working on simply hold down the ALT / Option key and click on the eye icon of the Grey (Dodge and Burn) layer. This will turn every other layer off. To go back to normal view just hold down the ALT / option key and again click where the eye icon for the Grey (Dodge and Burn) layer would be. Step 4: Flexibility of Grey Some people choose to dodge and burn on the grey layer using a combination of black and white brushes and this works just fine. However the reason I choose not to is so that I can set up my foreground to 50% Grey by clicking on the foreground colour and setting the HSB to 0, 0, 50. Then when I’m dodging and burning, if I need to remove or reduce an area I can quickly dive over to a brush and paint with this 50% grey colour at whatever Opacity I choose.

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Step 5: Blending Another great reason to dodge and burn on a 50% Grey Layer is how we can blend areas together. The real skill with dodging and burning is making it look natural how the highlight and shadows areas you’ve enhanced blend into each other. On this Grey Layer we can do that after the fact by selecting the area we want and using Gaussian Blur.

Dodging and Burning can make such a difference to your pictures by highlighting specific areas to guide the viewer and adding much more depth and dimensions. But if I was to offer one final tip here it would be to take your time; do a little then step away from your picture and return a few minutes later. When you do this you’ll see your picture with fresh eyes and will instantly know if you need to do more or you went too far and need to reduce the effect; and that’s easy now when working on the 50% Grey Layer.

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CHECK OUT MY YOUTUBE PAGE FOR 100’S OF FREE TUTORIALS www.glyndewis.com

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